The Second Month. A Reflection.

For me, time seems to go by rather quickly. From hours turning into days. Days turning into weeks. Weeks turning into months. I've been told that everything goes a lot quicker when you get older, but I was hardly expecting it to go from 0 to 100 so quick.

I've started to notice that ever since I started my 2nd year of A-level. Where everything became so systematic and formulaic that anyone would feel nauseated by such a routine. The feeling that I couldn't seem to stop moving and the world would seem to relentlessly fly by like a blink of an eye.

Yet being here. In Japan. In Toya.

I feel an unashamed peace. Deadlines are a distant past and the once suffocating pressure around my neck has loosened off. The feeling of being able to just actually breath. To lie under the sun without a care in the world.

What I intended from my year out from many things from experiencing an entirely different culture, familiarising with my Asian heritage and endeavouring to help teach students to learn English. But from all this, it has most importantly given me time to breathe and enjoy the world outside the UK. It has relieved me from academic pressures, draining retail work or from maintaining tantalising relationships and overwhelming workloads.

Although I miss the nuances and chaotic student life in the city of Birmingham. It's nice to give my mind, body and heart for what it seems a lifetime deserved break. And Yes. I really should work on being less of an overwhelming melancholic English student who is too overly dramatic for his own good.

I guess Toya couldn't be so more of a perfect mix as it rather counteracts my weariness with its charm to be so peaceful. The only real stress that I feel is if it's usually self-inflicting. Like overworking on a website... But it keeps up occupied, keeps me working and keeps me at what I like to do best, creating. I feel no longer necessary to hold up to any expectations beyond the call of duty of my own expectations.

My work here is no way described as easy but a challenge that is always distinctively new. Our work consists of four Nurseries, an Elementary school, a Junior High school, an elder care home and an English Advanced class. Simply a test of endurance and intuition where one day I can be emitting all my efforts to entertain nursery children which is mainly just me throwing them in the air over and over again because the kids seem to revel in the eyes of danger. Plus they seem to have more energy than I ever did doing during my whole A-levels. Other than that, I'd be planning for an English lesson in which I take ritual of internally asking for forgiveness for any wrongdoing I had done to my teachers as now I know the struggle of ... lesson planning.

Every day is an obligation to live my year at it's fullest from learning the complex language, perfecting Japanese etiquette or mastering the art of home-cooking which mainly leads to me eating an abundance of rice and resulting in dreaming of my mother's meals.

Adapting and experiencing a lifestyle which is so distant to the comfort of your home. To live and learn independently without the craved assistance from your family.

I particularly don't enjoy staying at home all day, especially on weekends. I find my favourite thing to do is purchase some snacks at our local convenience store and go for a chilling walk on the beach pondering about what kind of concoction I would call my dinner or simply about ... life. As if I was an overly emotional quote off a Tumblr post or I'm on the set of a dramatic riverside shot from Made in Chelsea.

We're enjoying our time teaching and interacting with the students and people. It's great to mutually share knowledge and I try and improve myself each lesson.

Toya's Autumn colours have finally appeared. I don't think I really need many words to describe them to you... There's a warmth here, a sense of tranquillity and simplicity at it's finest. But as the leaves brown and fall along the cobbled road. Our greatest 'challenge' is yet to come. "As Winter is Coming" #lol #GOT # R+L=J

I'll see you next time, hopefully not buried in snow...

Liem Doan

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PS. Postcards are coming soon. It's taken me awhile to figure out how to actually send one from Japan...

Visit my personal page to look at what we're doing in Toya on a daily basis and to learn more about Toya and Japan. http://www.inserttagline.com/dreaming-of-the-toya-sun

#DreamingOfTheToyaSun #LiemDoan